Skip to content

Quotation

Last reviewed:

“The god is wise, and human wisdom is worth little or nothing.”

Paraphrase or translation

Socrates · Socratic · Ancient · 399 BCE

What does it mean?

The mainstream reading is that Socrates interprets the oracle as a contrast: real wisdom belongs to the god, and the best human wisdom is knowing how little one knows. A competing reading thinks he uses the god to launder a personal mission the city has no reason to accept. The sentence is Apology 23a–b, his conclusion after questioning politicians, poets, and craftspeople. It explains why he keeps looking for someone wiser and keeps failing.

Did Socrates really say this?

The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Plato's report of Socrates explaining the Delphic oracle in the Apology. The English is close to G. M. A. Grube's translation of 23a.

Where it comes from

Plato, Apology 23a

Approximate date: 399 BCE.

How to use it

An expert on a radio phone-in who cannot say what they do not know is the figure he kept finding. Human wisdom, on his gloss, shows up as a willingness to mark the edge of competence, including in a trade you are paid for. The line is not an invitation to know nothing about the boiler or the contract, and it is a ranking of that know-how beneath the god's wisdom, and beneath the admission of limits.

A mindset reading

The habit is to treat expertise as real and still small. Ask where a skilled person, including you, has slid from 'I can do this' into 'I am wise about the whole'. The second claim is the one he says is worth little.

Understand the philosophy

Socrates is answering how the oracle can say no one is wiser than he is when he knows he is not wise. His solution is that the god alone is wise, and human wisdom, anthrōpinē sophia, is worth little or nothing by comparison. The key term is that comparison, not a slogan that knowledge is useless. He then takes the oracle as a command to expose counterfeit wisdom.

FAQ

What does it mean?

The mainstream reading is that Socrates interprets the oracle as a contrast: real wisdom belongs to the god, and the best human wisdom is knowing how little one knows. A competing reading thinks he uses the god to launder a personal mission the city has no reason to accept. The sentence is Apology 23a–b, his conclusion after questioning politicians, poets, and craftspeople. It explains why he keeps looking for someone wiser and keeps failing.

Did Socrates really say this?

Paraphrase or translation. Plato's report of Socrates explaining the Delphic oracle in the Apology. The English is close to G. M. A. Grube's translation of 23a.

Which work is it in?

Plato, Apology 23a Approximate date: 399 BCE.